Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Enough Chilling Hours

and other excuses for not setting up a garden yet

OK, so I got over the winter, which I think was milder than what we were told it could be. Goody - but unmistakably obvious signs of Spring have been happening, except there's no long piles of greens and browns to indicate future garden beds. I did get out and pound in a garden stake, so gimme that teeny bit of credit. 


Mostly, I hibernated, and planned out how to start replacing the one-way tool borrows that happen when moving twice. Hey, we did get some snow.


 For a while, the river rose a lot, but now the rocks are sticking out again, and the lush stuff along the banks turns green, not just from moss.

I even found a daffodil, all by its lonely, and I took a crappy picture of it, but you'll have to wait, because I can't find the camera to upload it. I tediously counted up how many hours below 40 degrees F we had between November 15th and March 15th, to get an idea of the chilling hours this winter. I got well over a thousand, so I guess I can plan on lots of pome fruits for the future orchard. And lots more, of course. I made a command decision to delay pruning the old fruit trees, as I read that they will do better with summer pruning anyway, and I'll get more to shred for compost, too. Now that the ground is warming a bit (all of a whopping 43 degrees now).

Duh - found the picture of the daffy.

Sounds crazy, bug we have some bayou-looking stuff in the far back yard. I put on my Bogs boots and stomped down the canes to get a closer look, since the weedy stuff had frozen and died down. But what the heck are those giant yellow flowers? They are easily 6 or 7 inches long, mostly right in the little pond and creek water, tons of them!



 
see what I mean about moss...and even ferns in the moss! In the top left of the first picture, that's a blackberry cane about 1 inch in diameter, meaner than hell, so I quit
my little excursion into the wilds. I need a big machete next trip, I think.
 
There are all kind plants and flowers, including the fruit trees, which bloomed out in the past week or two. I know one is a pear, two are apples (leafing but not yet flowering) and some are what, plums? apricot? I just have to wait, I know, and yes, I'll thin the fruit. Hang some sticky red things, too, to trap the flies. Gotta get some Tree Tanglefoot.
 


 

I found a pretty white flowering tree of some sort in the front "ivy" bed:

And, here's a leetle better pic of the lonely daffodil.